Diagnosed With A Terminal Illness? How Probate Can Benefit You
Posted on: 20 December 2019
If you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, there are many things you need to do to get your things in order. This will make things much easier for the family you leave behind. To get started, you should hire an attorney to help you go through probate. Below is information about what probate is as well as the many benefits this will offer you.
Probate Overview
Before you start probate service, it can be helpful to understand what this is. Basically, probate being supervised by the court to authenticate your last will and testament if you have set one up.
The probate process will locate your assets and then determine what your assets are worth. The process will also pay all your taxes and bills that you may leave behind. One very important part of the probate process is deciding how you want the remainder of your estate to be distributed to the beneficiaries that you choose.
Probate Benefits
There are many benefits of going through the probate process.
May Save Your Family Money
If you have a lot of debt, such as personal loans or credit cards, and you do not pay off this debt before you pass away, your family may have to pay it. When your will is placed in probate, a person you choose is required to let all creditors that you know that you have passed away. The notice of your death is also published in your local newspaper. Once everything is done, your creditors will have a certain amount of time to contact the person you chose to represent you. The creditors have this amount of time to file a claim to gain payment. If the creditor fails to meet the time limit, the money you owe will be dropped. In many cases, creditor will not take the time to attend this type of hearing.
Transfer Your Assets
You may have assets that do not get transferred to the right person. For example, if you chose to use a living trust, not all of your assets are transferred. If this happens, your assets could be awarded by the court wherein the court would choose who these assets go to.
The court could very well choose people whom you never would. For example, the court may choose someone who does not handle money well, and you would worry that this person would squander money or an asset.
A probate attorney like H. Charles Woerner, Jr. PA can help you with the probate process.
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